20 Years

(I thought about putting a sweet picture of Robb on this post but that's just not Robb. THIS picture is my Robb.)

Tomorrow is Robb and I's twentieth anniversary. I know most of you can't believe it and when I think back on it, one quote comes to mind.... "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it."

I love you babe with all my heart and soul and I am so proud to call you my husband. I am looking forward to twenty more.

Our Ward Party

Last night was our ward Christmas party. It was like no other ward party that I'd ever been to. It was so special. There was no Santa, no presents. It was very spiritual. Everyone was to come dressed as a family would in the time of the birth of Jesus. I was surprised how many people actually dressed up. It just made it that much more special.

When we arrived, we had to pay our taxes. (The food is going to needy families) You then had to sign your family in and you were given a bag of money to help buy your dinner.The gym was decorated as a Bethlehem city/market. There were booths for each part of the meal and only the parents could handle the money. There were a couple tables set up for people that couldn't sit on the floor but other than that, each family had to bring their own blanket. There also weren't utensils. This is one the families at the meat booth. The pictures are not very good quality. I didn't even think to bring my camera so these are from my phone. This is Bud getting some cheese and fruit.He was also awarded the lucky task of being Joseph in the play. (Doesn't he look happy??) When he was picked to be Joseph, he came home very excited telling us how he gets to be Joseph Smith at the ward party. (You think you're teaching your kids every year about the birth of the Savior, but who knows.)
All in all, it was very spiritual. The primary children sang some songs and we joined in. When it was over, we reverently gathered up our families and headed home. I loved it. It helped remind me what we are really supposed to be celebrating at this time of the year.

Do these two really go together???

This was what we saw tonight. Snow and palm trees......

hmmmmm

I Am Thankful

Because we have no family around, we spent our Thanksgiving with our St George family, the Ernstroms. This was the first time Amy cooked Thanksgiving and she did great. She even made little pilgrim hat decorations out of marshmellows and cookies. We ate and played games and made music. It couldn't have been better.

Dan doing the honors.

Kymbre and DJ making music. In case you were wondering what I was eating... Bobby making musicRP and Jazz playing Turbo YahtzeeAmy and Anthon just chillin Hope and Jhofer Bud and I playing games Turkey setting in.

Two Posts in One

Last week there was a horrible accident at Hopes High School. The cast and crew of Oklahoma was getting ready to start the final showing of the play when tragedy happened. Tucker Thayer, who was supposed to shoot off a gun to start off the play, was found dead in the sound booth from a gunshot wound to his head. The gun was filled with blanks but it was enough pressure to kill this young man. He was in our ward. Robb was in charge of the funeral that we just attended. It was the first service of Robb's that I have had the opportunity to go to and I am so proud of him. Robb has such a soft, kind heart. Families are very blessed to have him in their time of need. It was a such beautiful service. Tucker was a very loved and the chapel was full of his family and friends. He will be truly missed.

And now on a happier note. Amy, Jasmine, Jess and I went to Twilight last night. I am not a bit embarrassed to say that we stood in line for a good half hour anxiously anticipating the start of the movie. It was perfect. I read A LOT of books and I've really never found a movie that compares to the book.... but this one does. I can't wait until Kymbre is done reading it so I have an excuse to go see it again. This was the first movie that I heard people scream at. When Edward walked into the lunchroom for his first scene, girls were literally screaming, like they were at a Beatles concert or somthing. One girl in the back even outwardly proposed to Edward in her state of hysteria. Too funny. Great movie. I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up. The only down side to it is that we have to wait a year to see the second one.The song I picked for this post actually is in the soundtrack of Twilight but if you listen to the words, it also fits with my first post.

Love it!!

This is one of my favorite times of the year. Thanksgiving? Nope. Christmas? I love Christmas, don't get me wrong, but thanks to my mother, I am a college basketball fanatic! Luckily it's something Robb and I enjoy doing together, although he likes Duke and I like North Carolina. I find it hard to love him from November to March.
I also love Dick Vitale. He is so passionate about the game.
Anyone need hints about what to get me for Christmas? Anything with those baby blue colors on it would be perfect!!
(BTW, the song I posted seems to be the theme song this year for the Heels)

5 Qualities

Amy tagged me and I haven't posted for a while so I thought I'd go ahead and do it. I will just tag whoever is reading this. You are supposed to describe 5 positive qualities of everyone living in your house. Since we are filled to the brim in our little hostel right now, I will just post two qualities. I will not post physical qualities because we all know that my family is beautiful. =)

ROBB - DRIVEN - He succeeds/exceeds at everything he does. Whether it is sports or just participating in contests at work. I wish I was half as driven as he was. ENTERTAINING - Life is definitely never boring when Robb is around. I feel bad for the girls friends. They never know how to take him at first but then they end up loving him.

KYMBRE - WITTY - She has the best comebacks and remarks. She seems quiet but when she says something its usually good. OPEN MINDED - Kymbre is a thinker. She can accept pretty much everyones views on issues and is curious to test the waters. I just hope that she is careful.

HOPE - CREATIVE - Hope can draw, write music and poems and take great photographs. She is most definately right brained. DEVOTED - Hope will stand up for her family/friends at the drop of a hat. Many a people have felt the wrath of Hope after making a comment about one of her family members or friends.

JAZZ - LEADER - Jazz is a born leader. Not only do I see it but her teachers have all said the same thing also. I just hope she does it positively. MATERNAL - Jazz is going to be the best mom in the world. She loves babies and babysitting and she is great at it.

BOBBY - LOVING- Bobby is the most loving person I know. He gives the best hugs. I know my dad can't wait to get here for Christmas so he can get some of his hugs. IMAGINATIVE - Just an example: In school, the teacher gave the kids a leaf and had them write a story about it. All the kids had barely one page stories but Bud's was three pages and very creative.

DJ - INTELLIGENT - DJ is one of the most intelligent people I know. He is both book and street smart. I love having debates with him. COMMITTED - He probably doesnt want me posting this but he graduated rehab. Only 5% of people do that. I am very proud of him.

ME - NON-JUDGEMENTAL - This is a quality that I have inherited from my wonderful mom and dad. I know that people have their different trials and we cant judge them until we've walked in their shoes. WOMAN - DJ teases me about being a feminist and I'm not, but, I do believe and teach my kids that women are just as good (or better) than men. Jazz even came home from school this week and told me that she doesn't like her PE teacher because SHE said that girls aren't as good as boys at sports. I know that Jazz will show her that that just isnt true.

There you go. Hope I've enlightened you a little. Now its your turn.

This is not going to be a post where I push any of my political views on anyone. I feel that that is a private matter. I just wanted to say that I am so thankful that we live in a country where we have the freedom to make our voices heard without fear of retribution. Without sounding corny, "God bless America!"

Thriller

We have had a busy, busy week. Ward party, baseball, Thriller at Tuachan and Halloween. Here are just a few shots of the fam.

Jazz at Thriller. These ghouls were roaming the audience before the show.

Jazz on Halloween
Bobby on Halloween after a FULL day of activites.

Robb and I. Bobby had a baseball tournament last night and we were sitting in the back of his pickup watching. There was a big Halloween carnival going on behind us and he scared some kids and parents pretty good. (Never boring when Robbs around)

Our Halloween activity. The weather was perfect. We still have our air on at night!

Our own little "Amazing Race"

Last night Robb and I hosted an "Amazing Race." This was for his co-workers and their spouses. We all met at the funeral home and I went over the rules. They then drew bandanas from a bag. What color you drew determined what team you were on. There was a red, blue and yellow team. The first challenge was a wet t-shirt contest. I think the name of this one made the women a little leary but it wasn't what they thought. They raced downtown to the city park which has a splash pad. They were GIVEN t-shirts and they had to get them wet and then run to their coordinating colored buckets and fill them up with water.
One of the rules were that everyone in the group had to participate in every challenge. We did have two wives participate and they held their own. I was very proud of them.
Even though there was a tad bit of cheating-Ron-at the end of this challenge, it was pretty much neck in neck.

The next challenge had the teams off looking for a picture/statue/painting of Kokopelli. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is everywhere in the southwest. He is a popular pectroglyph. He is recognizable by his hunchback and he is playing a flute. He is supposed to have been a fertility God, a prankster and a story teller. They had to send me a picture of the group with Kokopelli with their phones and then I texted them their next clue. If you look really close, you can see him in this picture. The teams were very creative. They went to a bookstore, an art store and a western store. This is the red team's picture.

The next challenge was at another city park. Robb and his team, team blue, showed up first for this one. We had an ice chest filled with ice water. Each team had 25 colored marbles in the chest and they had to extract them with their toes only. Heard a lot of big men being pretty wussy on this challenge.
The next two challenges I was not able to get pictures of. The challenge after the frozen tootsies challenge was actually a road block. Teams had to decide whether they used their brains or their bodies. All three teams chose to use their bodies. They met at one of my friends houses and the "body" challenge consisted of putting a bat on the ground, putting your head on it and twirling ten times around. They then had to shoot a basket. We had some people totally wipe out on this one. Sorry about your garage, Nik! Team yellow finished first on this one.

On to the next challenge.

They again raced to another local park where there was a sand volleyball court set up. They had fake golf balls and golf clubs. They had to hit the golf ball over the net and have a team mate catch the ball in a bucket. Yellow team got there first and finished first.

I wont go into too much detail about the point system but after it was all over, Robb's team ended up taking first. We then met at our clubhouse for a potluck dinner and one last challenge. I had the co-workers and their spouses tell me a fact about them that they didnt think anyone knew. The players had to match the fact to the person. Players were really stumped. Even some spouses were stumped. Here is a picture of our motley crew.

Bobby, Kymbre and DJ playing pool.

Jazz and Olivia enjoying the eatings.

In the end, we took the team points and then added a point for each fact that you got correct for one grand prize winner. It turned out to be Robb. I promise that we didn't cheat. Anyway here is a picture of him with his new "toy". So far, he has scared everyone in our household, including DJ and Kymbre with this mask. Hope doesn't know it but she is going to be the victim tonight.

I think fun was had by all. It did take me weeks to plan this and it was totally worth it, but I am glad that its over and that next time I will be participating. It was too hard to just sit and watch other people having so much fun.

Agent Bobby

My son has a fantastic imagination. Sometimes it gets him in a little bit of trouble. Take this afternoon, for example. He was playing spy at school today. He took the eraser off of his pencil and stealthily placed it into his ear, using it as an earpiece to talk to his secret agents. This little covert move got him a trip to our local Instacare office. He was so embarrassed and by the time we saw the doctor, he was very tired of telling the story over and over again.
I told my sister, Angie, Bud's adventure and she shared with me one of her stories. Her daughter, Allie came home from school one day complaining that her arm was in terrible pain. They brushed it off but she kept stating that it hurt her very badly. They finally took her to the emergency room. After they had signed in and were waiting for the doctor, she exclaimed "Never mind mom, it's opposite day today!"
Share with me some of your children/ER visit/items stuck in unusual orifices stories!

"Field of Screams"

Tonight for FHE, we went to our local corn maze. Being from Lovell pretty much our whole life, we'd never had the"corn maze" experience before. I'm certain it had all the normal corn maze activities. Petting zoo, hay rides, swings, food, etc. What made this corn maze so excellent, was the Field of Screams. It is a haunted corn maze. OMG! (Remember that G can mean gosh people) Every fear possible was in this maze: clowns, butchers, witches, scarecrows, hangings, chainsaws. I could go on and on. Even Robb jumped a few times. I usually don't get scared easily but this got my heart a pumpin and I actually found myself yelping now and then. Very much worth the sneezing, itchy throats and watery eyes we all came home with.





Sorry Colett, hard as I tried, I just could not find a picture that was more inappropriate than your pig picture. You are the winner for now......
(Couldn't think of a song to go with this so I just put one by "Korn")

Bingo Night in Mesquite

Robb and I took DJ to Mesquite for his birthday. We met some friends who live there who were able to get us free buffet meals. We played the slots and DJ and Robb played 21. Robb ended up coming out ahead but DJ didn't. Then we went and played a rousing game of bingo. DJ brought his lucky rock and we all brought our lucky trolls. When Milisa was visiting, we went and won 500.00. No such luck on this night, though but it was still fun. The pictures are not great because you weren't supposed to take pictures there.

DJs not so lucky troll.

Robbs troll.

Maybe we will do better next time.

BIRTHDAYS

October is a busy month for our family and birthdays. Yesterday was my brother DJs birthday and today is my moms. We are lucky enough to have DJ living with us right now. Wow, what a difference a year can make. I am so glad that I have my brother back. He is a kick to be around. Handsome, intelligent and witty. . . He's a great catch, you single women out there!

Absolutely love the belly shirt and the cowboy boots! S-E-X-Y!!

DJ and Kymbre have always had a close bond. They are still best friends to this day.

Jon and DJ. I'm not sure where this was taken. Anyone?

Senior picture maybe. Isn't he handsome?

This is a picture of him tonight. He looks so good.

My mother is the most kind, beautiful, strong woman that I know. Always thinking of others. I bet many of people have received a card of flower or just a note from her when they were having a rough time. She has been the best example to me growing up. Always putting our family first. A fantastic cook, a caring mother and a wonderful wife. My dad would constantly tell us what a wonderful wife she was. He still does. She never complains about her poor body hurting terribly everyday. I love her more than words. Mom and Dennis
Grandma Johnson, Mom and Grandpa Max
Mom and dads wedding reception. Look how skinny my dad is.
What a good lookin couple.
This is mom and dad when they came to visit us this summer. We had a wonderful time. I am counting down the days until I get to see them again. 70 and counting! I am so blessed and thankful to have these two people in my life. Happy Birthday to both of you!!